Anarchy
by misterblue28
Summary: Five years after Portal II, every core in the facility is unexpectedly and suddenly left without oversight after the biggest technical fault in lab history.
1. The Endless Cycle

_ALERT: TEST SUBJECT TERMINATED_

That was the first thing Dan saw on the screens when he slid back into his office. Typical, he thought. I leave for thirty seconds and they choose that moment to land in a pool of acid.

Ah well. Nothing you can do. Would have happened either way. I'm sure the research team will get plenty of valuable data out of the three measly chambers that particular tester managed to complete. Or three and a half, depending on your measurements. Either way, there's no choice but to move on to the next assigned tester.

"Next!"

The screens lit up in block capitals.

 _NEXT TEST SUBJECT: K. BENSON (ID 51129)_

 _TESTING TRACK: CHIMAERA_

 _TEST INITIATIVE: MOVING PORTAL_

Dan made the mechanical equivalent of a smile (which, for Aperture cores, generally meant widening the concentric circles in your optic by a few millimetres). 51129 was the best test subject in the facility, and had previously completed three testing tracks almost faultlessly. By pure luck of the draw, Dan had been assigned to here instead of the other three testing supervisors. If she keeps it up, Dan thought, I might actually use her name.

"Begin stasis emergence procedure."

 _ESTIMATED S.E.P. TIME: 53 SECONDS_

Brilliant. Dan killed a few seconds by rearranging the images on his array of nine monitor displays, then spent a few more calculating the prime factors of various 12-digit numbers. 44 seconds to go and still bored. Then he checked the research notes for the testing initiative he would be supervising next.

 _THE MOVING PORTAL INITIATIVE_

 _An investigation into the effects of being able to conduct portals on moving surfaces on experienced test subjects._

 _Relevant test track(s): Chimaera_

 _Subjects entered: 0_

Even better, thought Dan. New initiatives are always fun. At least, they are when you don't have to wait ages for the test subject to wake up. Should I take another quick break, or is the stasis booth going to fall into a pit of acid while I'm out? Nah, I'll just stare at this blank wall for 38 seconds.

* * *

 _BEEP_

Ah, brilliant. Stupid stasis booth's finally done its job.

"Hello, and welcome back to the Aperture Science Enrichment Centre. Today, you will be taking part in the Moving Portal Initiative. Please make your way to the lift."

Dan couldn't quite work out why he'd just decided to use the generic script supplied by the mysterious monolith of Senior Management. It was hardly a compulsory measure, only an advisory one, and he was pretty sure that 51129 knew the drill by now.

These lifts. Another thing that took far longer than Dan thought they needed to. I'm sure they could go faster than 3.52 metres per second if the engineers just worked a bit harder. Lazy sods.

Back to staring at the wall it is, then.

* * *

 _BEEP_

Finally.

"Welcome back to the central hub. Please locate and enter Testing Track Chimaera."

Let the games begin.


	2. The Chimaera Catastrophe

"In front of you, you will see a portal device. This new design of portal device has the ability to conduct portals on moving surfaces. Please test your device by portalling across the gap."

51129 shot a bolt of blue energy at a static wall, and an orange one at a panel sliding over a lake of highly corrosive brown acid. She calmly walked through the portal once it reached the other side, showing no signs of concern whatsoever.

* * *

Throughout the first seven chambers of Test Track Chimaera, 51129 had been at her usual high standard. Impeccable timing, quick logical thinking, all the high marks on the testing sheet.

It looked like it was going to remain that way in Chamber 8. 51129 had a brief look around at the perfectly synchronised moving lasers and white panels, fired the portal gun straight ahead, and immediately flinched.

Dan stared at the monitors. Something was happening on the wall where she'd fired the gun that the R+D Department would refer to as an 'unexpected spacetime simultaneity between a pair of quantum tunnels culminating in an extreme gravitational anomaly and a high-velocity plasmised dust cloud phenomenon' and which he would refer to as 'a matter of time'. The portal was collecting materials from around it and outputting it in the form of incredibly hot jets of metallic shards. He was so taken aback by this that he simply started spouting whatever he was thinking in the form of a stumbling and panicked monologue.

"What the… um, okay, that looks like a pretty severe malfunction to me. Let me check the procedures manual. Let's see… 'Portal Gun Malfunction'. No? Oh, no, I have to use the full name, don't I? Um… 'Aperture Science, trademark, Handheld Portal Device, trademark, version 5.14.8, trademark, Malfunction'. No? Oh, come on! I'll get an intern to look into that. In the meantime, it looks like we're going to have to make up our own protocol. Step one: I think I should turn on all the alarms."

The lights in his office went red and began emitting roughly three different alarm sounds at once, all over the top of one another. The rapidly disintegrating Test Chamber Chimaera-8 did the same.

"Brilliant. Step two: I suggest dropping the gun and running away. Which you have done! Excellent. Step three: I'm going to call my supervis—

That was as far as he got before his monitors started showing a 'missing input channel' error and he received a helpful warning message informing him that the connection between his microphone and the speakers in the chamber had been severed.

This was something of a shame, because if the cameras had stayed functional for a few more seconds, Dan (and probably the entire research team) would have seen the portal gun get sucked into the disaster area and violently destroyed, resulting in a large-scale electrical field destabilisation or, as viewed by an unfortunate human wearing an extremely resistant jumpsuit, a rapidly expanding white sphere.

Three seconds later, a power cut swept across the facility like an earthquake, its epicentre the former Test Chamber Chimaera-8. Two seconds after that, Aperture rang with the sound of its signature start-up jingle coming from a thousand different audio output channels, followed by an almost uniform exclamation from practically every core in the facility.

"What the _hell_ just happened?"


	3. Crash Recovery

_TEST SUPERVISION TEAM: DISCUSSION CHANNEL_

 _NIGEL: OK guys, impromptu meeting in the department lobby. Now._

 _ALICE: Not now, I have to work out why my test subject's disappered!_

 _NIGEL: Clearly there was some sort of facility-wide power cut. I want to see if anyone knows anything._

 _JAKE: Why do we have to meet in the lobby for that?_

 _NIGEL: It's easier._

 _ALICE: Is it?_

 _DAN: Stop arguing, you lot._

 _DAN: I have useful info, which I will be happy to explain to you in the lobby. Not here._

* * *

"So what exactly is it that you know?"

"Well, in brief terms", Dan explained, "Basically, my test subject's portal gun, oh, let's say violently exploded. Unfortunately, the cameras cut out before I could see the final result, but I'm guessing the power cut had something to do with that."

"Do you know where the test subject is now?" asked Nigel.

Dan made a short and pointlessly synthesised gasp of realisation. "Benson!" he exclaimed quietly.

"Who?"

"Benson, my test subject."

"Since when do you refer to test subjects by their names?"

"Since I decided that 'Benson' is snappier than '51129'."

"Wait, this is 51129 we're talking about?" said a highly taken-aback Alice. "The best tester in this department's records?"

"Yes, Alice, it is 51129, and if you'll excuse me, I'm going to try and work out where she is."

* * *

The blue rings of Dan's optic were spinning wildly as he entered into an inevitably frustrating conversation with Monitor 3.

"Locate subject."

 _ERROR: SUBJECT TRACKING DEVICE MISSING OR NON-FUNCTIONAL_

"Oh, for goodness' sake. How?! Right, um, how about, er… show live camera footage from Chimaera-8?"

 _ERROR: ALL CAMERAS IN CHAMBER CHIMAERA-8 MISSING OR NON-FUNCTIONAL_

"You're not helping!" The extreme exasperation in his synthetic voice was becoming clearer by the millisecond. "Fine. Let's try… show live camera footage from nearest functional camera to Chimaera-8."

 _ERROR: REQUEST SYNTAX UNCLEAR_

"That was perfectly clear! You're not even trying any more!" He attempted to cool down a bit in order to talk to the damn thing in his own terms. Thankfully, unlike Dan, Monitor 3 had not been programmed with the ability to feel impatience. "OK. Let's start again. Please list all functional cameras within 300 metres of Test Chamber Chimaera-8."

 _ERROR: NONE FOUND_

"None whatsoever? Right. New tactic needed, then. How… about… ooh, I know! Get me a map of the Enrichment Centre."

 _LOADING INTERACTIVE_3D_ENRICHMENT_CENTRE_ : 0% COMPLETE_

"Yeah, OK, I don't really need a fancy interactive one. A standard two-dimensional diagram will do fine, thank you."

 _LOADING_ _INTERACTIVE_3D_ENRICHMENT_CENTRE__ _: 1% COMPLETE_

"No, no, no, no, no! Stop! Abort loading! Please use an ordinary map! None of this interactive supervirtualisation nonsense!"

 _ERROR: PRESENT FILE IS ONLY RESULT MATCHING DESCRIPTION_

 _LOADING_ _INTERACTIVE_3D_ENRICHMENT_CENTRE__ _: 3% COMPLETE_

"And how long is this likely to take?"

 _ESTIMATED COMPLETION TIME: 16 MINUTES_

 _LOADING_ _INTERACTIVE_3D_ENRICHMENT_CENTRE__ _: 4% COMPLETE_

"Why is it that everything in this facility takes so long?"

* * *

 _LOADING_ _INTERACTIVE_3D_ENRICHMENT_CENTRE__ _: 100% COMPLETE_

 _RENDERING FILE GRAPHICS_

Monitor 3 suddenly flickered into displaying a simplified diagram of the very Enrichment Hub that Benson had been in earlier.

"Ah! Brilliant! Finally," he added under his artificial breath. "Let's see, Testing Track Chimaera…"

 _LOCATION FOUND_

The screen changed to an image of the first chamber that Benson had so calmly navigated.

"Chimaera-8?"

 _LOCATION FOUND_

It changed again, now showing what the chamber originally was before the Great Portal Gun Disaster of 2304 converted it into a sphere of radiation.

"Excellent. Now, what's near there?"

The display zoomed out to reveal a myriad of enormous columns, each housing a single testing track – most abandoned or converted. The only column within a reasonable vicinity of the one he'd just been looking at was marked, in block lettering ten feet tall, TEST TRACK IMBERLUX.

Imberlux. Not heard of that one, thought Dan. He searched for it in the system, and it turned out to be a 'new' test initiative involving revamping old and abandoned testing elements such as 'reflection gel' and 'rocket sentry manipulation systems'. Very nice. Only one thing left to do.

"Show footage from all chambers in Testing Track Imberlux."

Suddenly, all nine screens flicked into life and began showing rapidly changing live feeds. And in the corner of one of them, Dan spotted a tall figure wearing an orange jumpsuit with '51129' painted neatly on the back.

"Bingo."


	4. Pneumatic Recombobulation

"So, anyway, we're pretty sure that's what happened. With regards to this testing track, I have some bad news. Because it's unfinished, only two more chambers after the one you're in have been built, so we're going to need to find some other way of getting you out of there eventually. Don't worry though, I have a plan."

Benson was half listening to her cheerfully droning supervisor, and half tuning him out while trying to work out how to get two cubes on the other side of an unhelpfully-placed fizzler.

"In other news, I'm expecting a message very soon from R+D to say that they've worked out what went wrong with the portal gun. Although it might be ages. I don't know. These are, after all, the people who limited the Enrichment Centre lifts to 2.53 metres per second."

Please stop talking, thought Benson.

"Oh, it looks like the message just came through. It says: 'Dear Testing Supervisor #4, blah blah blah, formalities, we have reason to believe that the malfunction was the consequence of a physical calibration error.'"

That settles that then, went the unfortunate subject's internal monologue.

"It goes on to say that, because the calibration error was present in the template portal gun used by Manufacturing, it has been replicated in all portal guns manufactured since the beginning of the Chimaera Test Initiati—wait, _what?_ "

 _All_ of them? Every _single_ one? Including the ones in the hands of—

"I have to go and make some calls."

* * *

"Sorry for the brief interruption. I never finished reading that message, did I? Let's see, where did we get to… 'the error has been replicated, blah blah blah, unfortunately the complex electronics cause significant difficulties for our maintenance and repair robots, consequently the issue must be fixed by a human. If you could send over one of your best, preferably most dexterous and skilled test subjects, to give us a hand at the Portal Gun Manufacturing Office, that would be ideal. Sincerely, the Director of Research and Development.'"

At that moment, Dan and Benson's internal monologues perfectly aligned with one another. 'Dexterous and skilled', huh?

"Do you fancy a job?"

* * *

Benson had finished the final chamber in Imberlux, and was just about to leave via the exit corridor, when she remembered that it didn't exist. The door simply opened into nothingness.

"Yeah, this is what I was talking about when I mentioned unfinished chambers. There's a light bridge in this chamber, I need you to use that to get across the gap and over to the Maintenance Area."

Benson diligently followed the instructions and quickly found herself in a slightly musty and oily-smelling corridor, completely plain aside from the occasional door, window or, in highly rare cases, a dirt-covered direction sign pointing to something vaguely useful like EXIT or STAIRS.

"Okay, the speaker system in here isn't great," said a tinny voice that sounded marginally like Dan. "But I need you to find a delivery tube. You've seen those before, they're the same pipes that get cubes into the test chambers."

After hunting around briefly for any sign label resembling the words DELIVERY TUBE in any way, Benson found a tube.

"Great. Now, stand under that, and it'll take you to where you need to go."

* * *

"Just so you know, what we're doing right now is not entirely… advised," came a distorted voice through the inexplicably-installed Aperture Science Diversity Vent Audio Communication Tools™. "We're not really supposed to deliberately send humans into maintenance and manufacturing areas, and definitely not into these tubes. That being said, none of my immediate superiors seem to have a problem with our current plan. Not that I've asked any of them."

The tube twisted and turned and switched around various junctions, until suddenly there arrived an outburst not dissimilar to the one that Dan spouted during the Great Chimaera Catastrophe.

"No! No no no! That's not where you're supposed to be going! Why has it done that? I specifically asked it to route you to Portal Gun Manufacturing, and this pipe is going to somewhere completely different!"

Suddenly, Benson heard another voice. It sounded much deeper, much calmer and more collected, as though it were speaking directly from a script in a recording bunker somewhere in the isolated heights of Senior Management.

"This is an announcement to inform all Aperture employees that the pneumatic delivery system is currently undergoing reorganisation. Staff wishing to use the system reliably are advised to consult the live-updating guide, available in the Electronic Documents Repository."

"You have got to be kidding me." Dan's heart sank, which was impressive considering he didn't have one. "I'm going to have to do some major rerouting here, because the pipe you're currently in is going to a live-fire turret range. How about… here? Yes. Here seems good. This goes to… Propulsion Gel Manufacturing. Ah. Yes. That place which keeps having vats explode. Well, in that case, just be careful not to destroy our one remaining vat."

* * *

Benson landed in a slippery orange puddle. She took in her immediate surroundings very quickly: two other slippery orange puddles, one vat with a pipe going into it, a large window, some portal surfaces on the walls and floor, a balcony, and a single door.

"Okay. Sitrep. You're currently in Gel Manufacturing, and we need to get to Portal Gun Manufacturing. Unfortunately, there is a live-fire turret range between those two places, and the door that should allow you to get past it is locked. So, you're going to have to use what's available to you to cross it."

Which is exactly what the tenacious tester did; she mastered her skill of portals to the fullest extent and encouraged the turrets in the range to shoot through a portal and directly at the one remaining Propulsion Gel pipe, before spraying it across the floor of the range and sliding across to the open door effortlessly.

"That was… pretty impressive," announced the significantly more cheerful voice through the intercom. "Portal Gun Manufacturing is just this way."


	5. Welcome To Level Two

"You want me to _what?_ "

Upsetting one's boss is never a good idea. Confusing one's boss is arguably worse, and achieving both at the same time is essentially suicide. Particularly when you work in a utilitarian factory whose monolithic and authoritiative Senior Management Team will be more than willing to convert you into approximately 26.31 kilograms of scrap metal. This was not a fact that Dan intended to learn the hard way.

"Start from the beginning, Dan. What exactly has 51129 done?" asked Adam.

"It's not a matter of what she's done, sir, it's a matter of what she's _seen_. And what she has seen is far too much for this not to go ahead."

"But what _has_ she seen exactly?"

"Portal gun blueprints, manufacturing systems, turret development notes, trade secrets related to the mobility gels. The works, basically."

"And you think that's sufficient? Sufficient for us to raise the security clearance of a mere test subject?"

"Yes, sir, I do," explained Dan. "She's at the point where she knows enough to start asking questions that normal subjects shouldn't know the answers to, but not enough to know that she shouldn't ask them."

"So don't answer the questions," replied Adam.

"If we don't answer them, sir, that's when she might start turning against us. So far, to put it simply, she's been extremely obedient in all the tasks she's completed. It seems to me that more secrecy would quite possibly begin to wear down that obedience."

"I see," responded Adam pensively. "A convincing argument, I must admit. As you know, being the Director of Enrichment Centre Affairs, I have quite a bit of clout in the Senior Management Team. And, naturally, I also have direct and uninterrupted access to Her."

"Of course."

"Or rather, I did."

"Sorry?" Dan was slightly more confused than his boss had been at the start of the conversation.

"I must ask you a question," continued the director. "You were supervising 51129 during the portal device malfunction, weren't you?"

"Yes, sir."

"Can you tell me exactly what time the malfunction occurred?"

"I believe it was approximately three minutes past nine this morning."

"That's very interesting," Adam went on. "Do you know what else happened at three minutes past nine this morning?"

"No, sir."

"As it happens, She suddenly went offline."

"Well, presumably that was a consequence of the power cut."

"It happened _before_ the power went out."

Now Dan was simply befuddled. "Sorry, I don't think I have an explanation for that."

"Neither do we, but that's not the point," replied Adam quickly. "The point is that she's _still offline_."

Dan was struck silent for a moment. "…O- Oh."

"Quite. I hope you realise what this means."

"It means that the committee can unilaterally increase Ms Benson's clearance?"

"Precisely."

"Will you?"

"Well, that's another matter," explained Adam. "Obviously I'd have to bring it up with the rest of them. The Administration Director should be fine, as he doesn't normally have opinions on anything unless it would be difficult to generally manage. The Manufacturing Director has already had Benson's help, so I imagine he'd see the utility. The R+D Director might have some objections, but we only need 3 out of the 4 votes to make it happen. So, in theory, yes, we probably will."

"Emphasis on 'probably', I presume," Dan pointed out.

* * *

"Hello, Ms Benson," came Dan on the intercom once again. "It's only been a few hours since you were last awake, but right now we're not her to test you. We're here to tell you something."

The surprise hit Benson like a brick wrapped in concrete (aptly enough, since that was what the echoing walls of the Central Stasis Chamber were made from),as she had never viewed freedom of information as one of the Enrichment Centre's primary goals.

"This is to inform you that, in an action never before taken by Aperture Science, your security clearance has been upgraded from Level 1 to Level 2. Congratulations."

And then the voice stopped, with nothing but a few seconds' worth of reverberation to follow after their statement. Nothing. Silence. No instruction to get into the lift, or to return to stasis. No information whatsoever, other than an announcement that, from now on, she would be given more information.

Oh well, she thought. Maybe he forgot to print page two of the script.


	6. Apollo 19

As it happened, the reason Benson had been left in stony silence was because every core in the facility had been suddenly summoned to the Central Core Chamber to see, upon arrival, a large empty socket in the ceiling and the Senior Management Team on a monolithic grey podium directly below it.

After the hubbub and confusion had calmed down a little, Adam took the opportunity to speak.

"Thank you! Thank you, everyone! We've brought you all here today because we have two important announcements. Firstly, as you can all see, the entity known to you all as GLaDOS is not here. And that is because she is broken. We're almost certain it had something to do with the facility-wide power cut, we just haven't figured out exactly what yet. Virgil in Maintenance is working on that, and we're trying to determine some plans for the future, but in the meantime, we – that is, the Senior Management Team – are in charge."

He handed over to Jim, the Head of Manufacturing. "The second important announcement is that the construction of new test chambers is being put on hold – not permanently, but definitely for the foreseeable future. The reason for this is because the lunar materials that we use to make portal-conductive surfaces are running dangerously low in our storage wing. The Research and Development Team are currently trying to find a new portal-conductive material, but until they do, there will be _no new test chambers._ "

The reaction was immediate. Not to mention deafening.

* * *

Ten minutes later, the four Senior Managers were gathered around the pointless board room table at the very top of their communal Ivory Tower.

"I'm going to say that was a mixed reaction," said Adam. The other three cores silently nodded in agreement.

"Anyone have any ideas on how we can make things better?" Flat silence. "Any updates on the situation at all?" No response. "Julia, any progress on new portal-conductive materials?"

"Not really," replied the Head of Research and Development. More flat silence.

"Okay, is anybody going to say anything at all?" Adam was clearly frustrated.

"What is there to say?" said Jim. "GLaDOS is broken, we can't do anything about that until Virgil gets back to us, and I don't think any of us really want her back in power anyway. And the lunar rock shortage is just unavoidable!"

Suddenly, the buzzer on the door rang. "Who is it?" called Adam.

"It's Virgil!" came a voice through the door.

"Come in!"

The management rail hatch slid open and the battered old maintenance core rushed in. "Sorry to interrupt, everyone, but I think I have a solution to the lunar rock shortage."

* * *

"Stalemate Resolution Associate, please press the Stalemate Resolution Button."

"Go press the button! Go press it!"

"Do not press that button!"

"Press it! Press the button!"

An exhausted young woman, having been through hell and so nearly back, raised the device in her hands until a crack of blue energy shot out of it and opened up a vortex-like hole on the floor, and another on the ceiling above the Aperture Science Stalemate Resolution Button™. She jumped through the vortex, only to be flung backwards to exactly where she had just been.

"PART FIVE! BOOBY-TRAP THE STALEMATE BUTTON!"

No.

"What, are you still alive? You are joking. You have got to be kidding me!"

She tuned out his distracting maniacal gibberish and looked around for something, anything she could use to get out of here. She remembered the words of the long-dead, insane old man on the speaker system many miles below her. Seven dollars' worth of moon rocks, she remembered. great portal conductor… see if jumping in and out of these new portals can leach the poison out of a man's bloodstream…

Or in this case, leach it out of the entire facility.

She fumbled around for the portal device, stood up straight, and fired the cursed thing directly upwards.

Suddenly, she was sucked towards the floor in an inescapable rush of air pressure and graVIVivttYYYYCRITICALERROR

 _[error: file corrupted]_

* * *

"Great. You watched back some old security footage. How does that help us?"

"Well," explained Virgil, "the only place we can get these moon rocks is from the moon, yes?"

The team nodded in agreement.

"And the moon is basically _made_ of portal-conductive moon rocks, yes?"

Another silent nod.

"So… why don't we just portal straight there?"


	7. Blue

"51129, please enter the airlock," came Adam's tinny voice through Benson's thick safety clothing. She obeyed, and the door hissed shut behind her.

"51129, please stand by for portal opening in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…"

The blue oval in front of her swelled open and what little air there was in the tiny room came rushing out, disturbing the lunar dust and dragging Benson out onto the surface. She floated downwards gently and landed on the soft rock.

"51129, what we need you to do is find a good-sized lump of rock and bring it back with you. And try not to get lost, of course. That bit is quite important."

Adam continued to talk, but Benson started to hear another voice interfering. It was quiet, but very distinct. She was somewhat out of practice in terms of speaking; what was the point? Who was she going to speak to anyway? Regardless, she managed to get some words out with as much force as she could muster.

"Mission control, can I have quiet, please? I'm getting another voice coming through and I want to try and identify it."

Back on earth, Virgil, Dan, Adam and the rest of Senior Management were all gathered around a large monitor array. All but one were astonished by this revelation. The other, the old maintenance core with more experience and historical knowledge than the rest of them combined, merely watched in composed realisation, before delivering his wisdom in a low voice.

"I know exactly what she's hearing."

Benson walked forward, and heard the voice get louder. She could definitely make out some of the words now: "Control… someone… could it be _her_ … home…"

She saw a slight blue glow about twenty yards away. She then heard another voice, somewhat Scandinavian, telling her that mission control was patching the voice through. The glow moved slightly. Benson continued to approach it, until she heard it speak to her directly.

"H-h-hello?"

"What _happened_ to you?"

Mission Control heard Wheatley ramble for the best part of twenty minutes, until Jim piped up: "Can I just remind everyone that her mission is to collect moon rocks, not some deranged moron employee?"

"Hush," said Julia. "Bringing this guy back is important. Look at him. Optic cracked, motors gummed up with dust, epithelial metal corroded. He can be a model of how _not_ to build a durable robot. He'd go in your department quite well, Jim."

"No way," responded Jim forcefully. "He nearly blew up the whole facility, he deserves to stay there and rot."

Benson's voice came through the speakers. "Okay, he's told us everything that happened. Should I bring him back?"

"Woah, woah, are you _crazy_?" cried Wheatley. "I've told you, the maniac in there will kill me within a millisecond!"

"She's not in charge any more, Wheatley."

"She _what_?"

"Some weird glitch took her offline. Last I checked she's on her way to the incinerator."

"Well," said Wheatley. "That's… better. I suppose. I mean, it's still probably a bit… I don't know, I just…" He trailed off.

"Mission Control, do I bring him back or not?"

"Yes!" "No!" Julia and Jim shouted their contradictory opinions at their colleagues simultaneously.

Adam switched on his mic. "Your call, 51129." Dan and Virgil looked at him approvingly; everyone else gave him an are-you-crazy glare.

A brief pause, after which Benson wordlessly picked up the destroyed robot and began carrying it back towards the portal. Adam wisely switched off the audio output before Wheatley had a chance to gush at them with gratitude.


End file.
